Today has been an exciting day as we are pleased to say 30(05) is finally back in Rutland! When Kayleigh last reported on 30’s location, she was making slow progress through France, only travelling 17 miles on the 27th when she spent time at a French chateau. Looking at her most recent data, we can see she continued to progress slowly and once again on the 29th she only traveled 16 miles – this time spending most of her day nearby a local salmon farm, continuing to display a knack for picking great resting stops!

She’s back!

Salmon farm near 30’s roost on 29th

By this time the weather had improved, so we do wonder why she wasn’t making quicker progress, however we were saved from any worrying when we checked her position this morning, as the most recent data showed she arrived in Rutland yesterday evening, after crossing the channel near Dover. Phew! Some great news to start the day.

Meanwhile at Manton bay, Maya has been spending an increasing amount of time huddled down on the nest – could an egg be on the way? We will be keeping our eyes peeled over the weekend and hope to bring you some good news soon.

Just after 6pm yesterday, 33 bought in a huge fish that seems to have kept both birds going today – at the time of writing we haven’t seen any further fish bought to the nest.

The ospreys have continued to add to their nest, which means we’ve seen more comical moments from 33 – he really got himself in a pickle this afternoon with a very large stick, before thankfully eventually freeing himself.

There’s also been plenty of nest scraping going on.

Finally, we also had an intruder on the nest this afternoon – unfortunately the intruding bird was too far away to spot, but could it have been 30(05) coming to check out the nest on her return to Rutland? Possibly!

Great the old lady has made it back home, I must admit I was getting worried as she seemed to be running out of steam. welcome home, now if you can rear a couple of chicks it would round of a perfect season for all your fans.

Dear Kayleigh
If Maya is pregnant ( Sorry, I don’t know the exact words for an Osprey with chicks ) will Maya and 33 still go through the Mating Ritual. And if Maya is expecting, will subsequent mating attempts produce more eggs or does one successful attempt accomplish a pregnancy.

Hi Mike,
Maya and 33 will continue to mate even if she is pregnant. Maya will only be forming and storing one egg at a time – we do know that most birds can store sperm for a few days, and each osprey egg is usually laid a couple of days apart, however as the birds continue to mate throughout egg laying it is likely that more than one attempt is needed for more than one egg to be produced.
Thanks
Holly